Grantee Profile: The Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project

Caption: YASP co-founders and members gather at a barbecue

“We created an organization to get those resources and empower ourselves and our communities to make change.” — Joshua Glenn

Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project (YASP) was founded in 2004 by young people who wanted to build a movement to end the practice of automatically charging young people as adults and incarcerating them in adult facilities. Through weekly art, music, and empowerment workshops, YASP makes space for young people to express themselves creatively and develop as leaders within and beyond prison walls.

“Young people get out, they’re homeless, they lost contact with their families while in jail. That was my situation,” says YASP cofounder Joshua Glenn. “I was let out right back into the community I was arrested in. So, we created an organization to get those resources and empower ourselves and our communities to make change.”

The first grant YASP ever received was from Bread & Roses. “We had no money. It was just an idea,” Glenn recalls. “Bread & Roses fueled that whole fight. That was the money that helped us even have time to figure things out and shape our organization.”

Recently YASP has been building a statewide campaign to end the practice of youth being tried as adults and educate people about the school-to-prison pipeline and structural violence. “We try to equip people with education on how to rise up against the system and how to be activists and organizers,” explains Glenn. YASP members produced a short documentary, Stolen Dreams II: Breaking the Cycle of Youth Trauma, Violence, & Imprisonment, that they screen at community meetings throughout Pennsylvania.

“We’ve received funding from other organizations, but Bread & Roses is one of the best. They’re willing to listen,” Glenn says. “Bread & Roses is built to enrich the community. There’s not any ulterior motives behind the fund — they don’t try to guide what you do with the money. That’s the best thing you could possibly have when you’re doing this type of work.”